Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Joe Johnson has tendinitis and will miss All-Star Game

The Atlanta Hawks will be without Joe Johnson, their leading scorer, for tonight's game and Thursday's game and he will sit out the All-Star Game this weekend.

The good news, however, is that the MRI on Johnson's knee shows that there is no structural damage and that Johnson has tendinitis. He will be reevaluated before their first game after the break, which is against the Warriors on February 29th.

“It is just tendinitis,” Hawks coach Larry Drew said, per Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “From that standpoint, it’s just going to be on feel, how he feels with treatment and therapy. … For us, it’s important that he gets well to where it settles down from a pain standpoint.”

“Particularly with tendinitis,” Drew said. “It’s just one of those things where you have to allow the knee to rest to where it is not getting the constant pounding.”

With Johnson out of the lineup tonight, Willie Green will start in his place. Green has played at least 20 minutes in three of his past five games Green has scored at 17 points or more in all three games.

Johnson is averaging 17.6 points, 3.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game and leads the team in three-pointers made (1.8 per game).